Because I could not stop for death

Because I could not stop for Death --

He kindly stopped for me --

The carriage held but just ourselves --

and Immortality.

We slowly drove -- he knew no haste,

And I had put away

My labour, and my leisure too

For His Civility --

We passed the school, where children played,

At wrestling in a ring

We passed the fields of gazing grain,

We passed the setting sun.

We paused before a house that seemed

a swelling of the ground;

The roof was scarcely visible,

The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries; but each

Feels shorter than the day

I first surmised the horses' heads

Were toward eternity.